Image Quality

All of the sample images in this review were taken using the 16 megapixel Fine JPEG setting, which gives an average image size of around 6Mb.

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W produced images of above average quality during the review period. It handled noise fairly well, with some noise already appearing at the relatively slow speed of ISO 200 and then becoming progressively worse at ISO 400 and ISO 800. The fastest full-resolution settings of ISO 1600 and 3200 suffer from a loss of fine detail and colour saturation, while the headline-grabbing settings of ISO 6400 and 12800 are very noisy indeed. Chromatic aberrations were well controlled, with limited purple fringing effects appearing only in high contrast situations. The 16 megapixel images were just a little soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpen setting.

Macro performance is excellent, allowing you to focus as close as 1cm away from the subject when the lens is set to wide-angle. Commendably barrel distortion is well controlled even at the 24mm focal length. The built-in flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and adequate overall exposure, although there is noticeable vignetting at 24mm. The anti-shake system works very well when hand-holding the camera in low-light conditions or when using the telephoto end of the zoom range. The maximum shutter speed of 30 seconds allows the cameras to capture enough light for most after-dark situations.

The Pro Low-Light scene mode produces better image clarity at high ISO levels at the expense of a loss of fine detail, while the HDR mode effectively produces images with greater dynamic range. The Sweep Panorama mode works largely as advertised, making it simple to take hand-held low-light and wide-vista shots, although there is a clear ghosting effect around any moving subjects. The range of Advanced Filters provide some creative control over your JPEGs.

Noise

There are 8 ISO settings available on the Fujifilm FinePix S9400W. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise levels for each ISO setting.

ISO 100 (100% Crop)

ISO 200 (100% Crop)

ISO 400 (100% Crop)

ISO 800 (100% Crop)

ISO 1600 (100% Crop)

ISO 3200 (100% Crop)

ISO 6400 (100% Crop)

ISO 12800 (100% Crop)

Focal Range

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality 50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little bit soft at the default sharpening setting, but don't really benefit from further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

Original (100% Crop)

Sharpened (100% Crop)

File Quality

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W has 2 different JPEG image quality settings available, with Fine being the highest quality option, and it supports the RAW format too. Here are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various options, with the file size shown in brackets.

Fine

Normal

Chromatic Aberrations

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W handled chromatic aberrations well during the review. A little purple fringing was present around the edges of objects in high-contrast situations, as shown in the examples below.

Chromatic Aberrations 1 (100% Crop)

Chromatic Aberrations 2 (100% Crop)

Macro

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W has two macro modes. The standard macro can focus as close as 7cm at wide-angle and 1.3m at full zoom. Go into super-macro and you can close into 1cm. However, the zoom is disabled in this mode.

Macro

Macro (100% Crop)

Flash

The flash settings on the Fujifilm FinePix S9400W are Auto, Forced Flash, Suppressed Flash, Slow Synchro, and any of those modes combined with Red-eye Reduction. These shots of a white coloured wall were taken at a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (24mm)

Flash Off - Wide Angle (1200mm)

Flash On - Wide Angle (1200mm)

And here are some portrait shots. Neither the Auto or Red-eye reduction mode caused any amount of red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)

Red Eye Reduction

Red Eye Reduction (100% Crop)

Night

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W's maximum shutter speed is 30 seconds, which is great news if you're seriously interested in night photography. The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 30 seconds at ISO 100.

Night

Night (100% Crop)

Anti Shake

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W has an anti-shake mechanism, which allows you to take sharp photos at slower shutter speeds than other digital cameras. To test this, we took 2 handheld shots of the same subject with the same settings. The first shot was taken with anti shake turned off, the second with it turned on. Here are some 100% crops of the images to show the results.

Shutter Speed / Focal Length

Anti Shake Off (100% Crop)

Anti Shake On (100% Crop)

1/50th / 24mm

1/10th / 1200mm

Intelligent Digital Zoom

The Intelligent Digital Zoom function can digitally boost the optical 50x zoom up to 100x, the equivalent of a 2400mm focal length!

50x

50x (100% Crop)

100x

100x (100% Crop)

Advanced Filter

The Advanced Filter mode on the Fujifilm FinePix S9400W offers 10 artistic special effects to help customise the look of your images as you take them.

Toy Camera

Miniature

Pop Color

High-Key

Low-Key

Dynamic Tone

Fish-Eye

Soft Focus

Cross Screen

Partial Color (Red)

Pro Low-Light

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W's Pro Low-Light advanced mode produces better image clarity at high ISO levels, with the camera automatically taking a series of four high sensitivity/low-noise shots in quick succession which are then combined together using in-camera processing into an image with less noise than the single exposures. The main drawback is a noticeable softening of fine detail.

Pro Low-Light Off

Pro Low-Light On

Film Simulation Modes

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W offers three different film simulation modes to help replicate the look of your favourite film stock from the past.

Standard

Chrome

Black & White

Panorama Mode

The Fujifilm FinePix S9400W allows you to take panoramic images very easily by 'sweeping' with the camera while keeping the shutter release depressed. The camera does all the processing and stitching, and there are three views available. The main problems are that the resulting image is of fairly low resolution - 1080 pixels high and 5760 pixels wide for the 360 degree image - and moving objects are recorded as "ghost" images.